The North Butler baseball team made the most of a tough season at 5-17 overall. The Bearcats will have spots to fill following the departure of four seniors ahead of next season.
The Bearcats seniors include Carson Lewis, Lucas Goodrich, Carter Miller and Griffin Buss.
Head Coach Chase Stohr says as his first four year senior group that he coached they stepped up, and a young group stands ready to take on bigger roles.
“It’s bittersweet having them leave because that’s the first wave gone now for me,” says Stohr. “They put a lot of work in the off season and the last few years they stepped up for us. Carson Lewis had a good year at the plate for us. Luke Goodrich stepped up big for us behind the plate for majority this season. Carter Miller pitched great and started hitting better as the year went on. Griffin Bus was a staple for the last four years in left field for us. Definitely some spots are going to have to get replaced for us at the varsity level next year. I know we got some good young kids that are more than capable of stepping up.”
Taking on a bigger role is incoming junior all-conference pitcher Brody Wangsness who led the team with a 1.44 ERA and a new school record 108 strikeouts this season.
Stohr says Wangsness continues to mature, pitched phenomenal this season and gave the Bearcats a chance to win.
“I’m ecstatic to have him for another two years. He throws the ball hard. I think he needs to maybe control the pitch count a little bit better. That’ll come with maturity and we’re trying to work on that with him. He had a great year and broke some school records, he had the most strikeouts in a season in North Butler history. He pitched phenomenal for us and whenever he was on the mound, we had a good chance of winning no matter who it was.”
Stohr says he recommends players enjoy rest time ahead of fall season and a goal of offseason work is improvement, starting with pitching.
“I always tell the boys take a little bit of time off, to step away, enjoy the rest of their summer. Then a lot of the boys that are on the baseball team are also out for either cross country or football. They’ll be right back at it again here in a few weeks. It’s always good to have those multi-sport athletes. Then come January, we’ll get going again with pitcher catchers. We’re gonna have some pitchers that we need to replace here from this last year. Definitely gonna need some kids to spend some time in the off season and throwing and improve in that regard. Then hopefully we make some improvements in other areas we need.”
North Butler is projected to return 19 players for next season.